Responsiveness to simple and complex auditory stimuli in the human newborn

✍ Scribed by Gerald Turkewitz; Herbert G. Birch; Kenneth K. Cooper

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1972
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 730 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0012-1630
• DOI: 10.1002/dev.420050103

✦ Synopsis

The relative effectiveness of complex and simple auditory signals was examined by presenting 2-day-old infants with a sequence of stimuli consisting of a white noise and a variety of pure tones (which ranged from 250 t o 8000 Hz). "Catch" trials during which no stimulus was presented were interspersed throughout. The frequency of occurrence during "catch" trials of each of the response indicators (cardiac acceleration, toward-turning eye movements, and finger movements) was used as the baseline. Although the white noise stimulus elicited significantly more responses on each of the measures than occurred during "catch" trials, none of the pure tones produced significant changes in baseline rates for any of the measures. Failure t o obtain an effect on pure tone stimulation could have stemmed from an intensity effect. Therefore, an additional group of infants was examined using pure tones that ranged in intensity from 50 to 80 db (the intensity range covered by the relevant component frequencies in the white noise). None of these stimuli at any of the intensities used had an effect on any of the measures.

Although we have clear evidence that infants from birth onward are responsive to complex tonal arrays (Eisenberg, 1970;Turkewitz, Birch, Moreau, Levy, & Cornwell, 1966; Turkewitz, Moreau, Birch, & Davis, 1970) we have little knowledge of the particular portions of the auditory spectrum to which they are responsive. The present investigation, therefore, was designed to provide us with such information on the effective auditory environment of the newborn infant.

Knowledge of the features of auditory stimulation to which infants are responsive is important for at least three reasons. In the first place, the present atmosphere in the disciplines of child care has increasingly stressed the